US: Consumer confidence improved further - Nomura

Analysts at Nomura suggest that while US-China trade tensions have recently escalated, US consumer confidence improved further.

Key Quotes

“Conference Board’s consumer confidence index jumped to 138.4 in September, beating expectations (Nomura: 133.0, Consensus: 132.1), from 134.7 prior month. The present situation measure improved to 173.1 from 172.8. The index for future expectations increased sharply to 115.3 from 109.3, suggesting resilience of consumer optimism.”

“Much of the optimism appears to be driven by continued improvement in the labor market. The labor differential index (“jobs plentiful minus hard to get”) inched up to 32.5 from 30.2, highlighting favorable labor market conditions from the perspective of workers.”